I'm really so excited about these cookies, can't you tell? Thank you, thank you to the person who emailed me this recipe. It was actually a recipe for a two ingredient cookie, but walnuts and bananas really do it for me, think banana bread.. in a cookie.

The cookies are best right out of the oven, they are chewy and soft – just how I like my cookies.

I'm anxiously awaiting my next batch of bananas to get super ripe so I can make them again. This time, I'm going to add almonds and see how they turn out. Next time, maybe raisins? chocolate chips? Cinnamon, pumpkin spice, vanilla... can't wait!

Be sure your bananas are super ripe. I've only tested them with quick oats, so I'm not sure how they work with rolled oats. My gut tells me stick with the quick oats.

If you're on Weight Watchers; each cookie is 1 points plus. Quick breakfast to go; 5 cookies and a piece of fruit = 5 point plus! Leave the nuts out, they are still 1 point each. Replace the nuts with mini chocolate chips... still 1 point. Make these today!

Donna, I never throw away ripe bananas. I peel them, put them into a sandwich bag and smash them flat. Then I put them in the freezer and use them for smoothies or banana bread. If you use two in your bread recipe, put two in the bags, but put just one in a bag for smoothie use.

I just made them with 2 bananas that I had throw in the freezer (I just freeze them whole) I sat them out for awhile peeled them and followed the recipe. I split the recipe and made half with nuts and half with mini chocolate chips. They are good!

Please, please! Never throw bananas away. You can just put them in the freezer in the skin. Yes, they get very, almost black skinned, but the insides are even better & sweeter to bake or cook with. Set them on the counter to defrost or if you need them in a hurry, zap in micro. Doesn't take long. Great in smoothies or shakes. Super for banana breads. I collect those spotted, soft bananas in bags all year, so I'll have a supply in a second and a great collection for holiday baking.

You are right...5 of these cookies would be 10 PP on WW. This recipe makes 16 cookies, so when all of the ingredients are added up you have to divide it by 16, and that equals 2 points for ONE cookie. I mean what is i point here or there but if you were to eat five, that could do some damage to you daily points allowance. They do look yummy though!

My ingredients are 1 pt for each 1/8 cup oats and 6 pts for 1/4 cup nuts. that is a total of 14. I ended up with 20 cookies so actually less than a point each. I am new to WW is there something that I am not understanding?

why do you have to use the banana? I really think WW just hasn't updated recipe builder since fruits became free. I don't see how a banana magically grows points if it is in a recipe - if I make a smoothie and use rb (I know it doesn't make sense but to illustrate the point) it adds points for the banana. and the message they show you when you click on the "not what you were expecting?" is so vague...these look amazing!

I believe the reason the bananas have points once they are incorporated into a recipe is that your body no longer has to work as hard to break them down. I'm pretty sure weight watchers has put a lot of thought into the recipe builder and haven't just forgotten about it.

Actually Gina, I apologize! I am wrong... commenter Sayda pointed out to me that I might not have been careful with adding my ingredients to the recipe builder and when i went back and checked, she was right! My recipe builder was indeed adding 1 whole cup of walnuts, though I chose a 1/4. They are one point each! Even if you use extra large bananas... Now I wonder how often I have had this mistake happen in the dozens of recipes I added to my builder....I might have to sit here today and go through them all...I may have been cheating myself! Sorry for causing a ruckus on your post...:-(

I think dried cranberries added to these would be great and maybe pecans instead of walnuts or slivered almonds. I did not know that oatmeal had gluten in them. I have several family members that are gluten free.

these remind me of a cookie version of the oatmeal cupcakes that chocolate covered katie has on her blog, have you checked those out Gina? So good and healthy! Can't wait to make these cookies, they are perfect for an easy on the go snack! complex carbs, protein from nuts, natural sugars and vitamins/minerals from the banana - sounds like a great after gym snack!

To the person who posted that they are 2 pts a peice.....When you type in an ingredient into the recipe builder, it will come up, for example, quick oats 1/4 cup. When you click on that, if you are not careful, it actually will come up 1 cup and you have to change the measurement. These are indeed 1 pt per cookie. Thanks Gina! They look awesome and I can't wait to make them!

Sayda....Thank you for pointing that out to me. My recipe builder was indeed adding 1 whole cup of walnuts, though I chose a 1/4. They are one point each! Now I wonder how often I have had this mistake happen in the dozens of recipes I added to my builder....I might have to sit here today and go through them all...I may have been cheating myself! Thank you again for pointing this out, I had no idea!

You might try subbing unsweetened applesauce for the banana if you are not a huge banana lover (like I am not). But I'm sure you may have to add a bit more of the quick oats because the applesauce would probably be runnier than mashed banana. I think an apple cinnamon oatmeal cookie with walnuts sounds fabulous!

There is something quite exciting that happens everytime I read the word "Healthy Cookies". Talk about Oxymoron! This recipe looks great! I think I would possibly add some dried cranberries for some extra sweetness too!

Gina, Your site is my "go to" whenever I'm looking for inspiration and I've never tried a recipe from you that we didn't love. Thank you for this one and all the great ones you share. I'm thinking that since we freeze bananas all the time that maybe these could be frozen in their pre-baked state so that you could just pop a few in the toaster oven when you want them. What do you think?

I just finished working out on my elliptical and was sitting here wanting something sweet that wouldn't put back on all the cal's I sweated off, opened up your site and here is what I wanted! I ran to the grocery store to pick up rolled oat to make it and they are exactly wanted I wanted! Thanks so much for all the hard work you do for us!!!

I just made your other banana cookie recipe last night they are all gone! So do these taste as good as those because there's alot of ingredients in that one and I am doubling the batch today so 3 ingredients would be alot easier!?!

yummy. just made these -- well sort of. I only had 1 ripe banana and I only wanted to make a few cookies. I don't eat grain so I used 3 tablespoons of flax meal and 1.5 tablespoons of coconut flour. Bit of water, almonds. They were very tasty and will easily satisfy a sweet tooth.

YUM! Just took these out of the oven, and they are so tasty! I saw this recipe this morning, and happen to have ripe bananas, so I whipped them up right away. I added chocolate chips instead of nuts and 1 tbsp peanut butter. They made my house smell delicious. They made exactly 16 cookies. I'll be eating them non stop for the next couple of days.

I happened to have tons of bananas that were overripe so I made 1 batch plain banana and oatmeal and I made another batch with 2 tbsp peanut butter. For both recipes, I got 21 cookies. Great nutritional stats (25 calories w/ no PB, 36 calories w/ PB). I like the consistency of the peanut butter ones better - wetter batter and more cookie-like. These are great for breakfast or a healthy snack, but I have an insane love of oatmeal cookies and was hoping it would fit the bill as a healthier oatmeal cookie but they didn't:( Nonetheless I made a bunch and will definitely make more in the future :)

Pamela, I was thinking about adding some raisins, cinnamon, a dash of salt... maybe that would give you more of the oatmeal cookie flavor you were looking for... I've had more than a dozen possible add-ins come to mind... now I've got to get some bananas...

How about flax meal? I think that might work nicely, but it would probably up the Points Plus Value, but it would only be with healthy fats! You could also try unsweetened shredded coconut, or almond flour! :-)

Oh my goodness! We just made these and we added a small handful of semi-sweet chips and a tiny bag of pepitas I had in the pantry. YUMMY! Love the crunch pepitas gave to it, got me to thinking that these made with pumpkin butter would be scrumptious!!

I'm going to make these tomorrow, but I'll use pumpkin puree instead of banana & add in some pumpkin pie spice & chocolate chips! Pumpkin puree has less sugar, and lots of fibre! I might have to add a little agave or stevia to make up for the sweetness that the bananas would give, but I can't wait to make these! I'm reading this while in bed, about to go to sleep and I want to get up to go make them right now! :)

Oh the possibility with these, healthy, versatile and satisfies my sweet tooth! Have you tried my one-ingrediant soft serve? Another great idea for bananas! http://eating-made-easy.com/2012/04/11/one-ingredient-soft-serve/

Just wondering if anyone has made these with GF oats? I tried a couple similar recipes in the last couple weeks and they were major flops with the GF oats. Something about them is just *different*. :( But thanks for all the great recipes...I love this site!!!

I'm a peanut butter freak. haha I make little heart shaped oatmeal cakes from banana, peanut butter, an egg, oatmeal, flax seed, and a little cinnamon and vanilla. These also look good. I'll have to give them a try.

This is great! I make a "baby friendly" version of this for my daughter (10 months old) without the nuts! It's probably one of the more popular posts on my blog too ( ourgfreelife.com ). But I never thought of doing this with nuts or chocolate. Next time I'll do half a batch for her, and an even yummier batch for us. Banana is such a great natural sweetener when cooked!

Here's a quick tip. If you don't have any ripe bananas, you can bake your bananas in the oven for at 300 degrees for about an hour until the peel is very dark brown/black. The banana inside is amazing! It's very sweet and caramelized. This won't work for completely green bananas. The banana needs to be mostly yellow.I got this tip from Cook's Illustrated. They use this technique in their banana bread recipe.

I can't wait to make these! Thank you Gina for your wonderful blog! I have tried many of your recipes and they all a big hit! I love that you even include the points for those of us on Weight Watchers! Keep up the great work!

I made these tonight & they are really good. We are having a playdate with my daughter's friends tomorrow. So I did bananas, oats & choc chips. A few of her friends have nut allergies. I will try these with nuts for us sometime.

These are delicious! I added a tablespoon of PB2 and a handful of mini chocolate chips, and they certainly calmed my sweet craving after dinner. The best part is how filling they are...impossible to over-indulge!

I just made these with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats (rolled oats, not quick cooking) and they turned out just fine. I added a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a smidge of maple syrup to make them slightly sweeter. We were really surprised at how good they are!

Just made two batches of these cookies! One with the walnuts & one with mini choc chips! They are excellent & just right for my husband & I to have an afternoon snack with coffee. Fits right into our WW program! Thanks for the recipe!

Just made these although I substituted almonds for the walnuts cause I didn't have any in the house. I also added some mini dark chocolate chips cause I was craving some chocolate. These are fantastic and will definitely be making them again!!!!

thanks! these were so easy and good. i added walnuts and choco chips. i served the plate to the boyfriend and went to clean up in the kitchen. when i came out, they were already half gone! great treat to satisfy a sweet craving

I work at a Hotel, and we have to have banana's everyday for our deluxe breakfast in the morning. So the employee's can take home the over ripe and spotted banana's!! I have several zip bags of banana's in the freezer right now!! To help against your banana's getting freezer burn, I use the FOOD SAVER machine!! My banana's stay longer with this wonderful machine!!

My friend gave my a similar recipe that included cinnamon, nutmeg, and applesauce for a moist texture. One can freeze the cookies, take two out in the morning, spread peanut butter on them for extra protein, heat them, and then enjoy.

Made these last night. I added choc chips instead of walnuts and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and 1 tsp Splenda... they are awesome! Had 2 last night and just had 2 for breakfast. My husband called them "chocolate chip banana bread bites" because that is more what they are like than cookies. A nice treat!

So excited about the possibilities here! I had these in the oven about 2 minutes after reading the post. I think they were a little too banana-y, so I'll follow some other suggestions of subbing applesauce for some of the banana. So many add-in possibilities! Unfortunately, my kids hated them, but they hate everything.

I think maybe my bananas were too big mine are very mushy inside but the taste is great! I set my batter out for a while in hopes the oats will soak up some and mine the rest will be more chewy and cookie like!

after having read all these comments about the bananas - I almost hate to ask this question. since I mash my bananas and then freeze them, I wonder how many cups of mashed bananas this recipe takes. Sorry for such a silly question, but the comments about mushy cookies; or dry cookies certainly is as a result of the amt. of bananas. Thank you.

I have a question...I added these to my WW recipe builder and my points+ total came back as 3 pts. for 2 cookies (used mini choc. chips like you suggested). Any reason why that would be? Is it because of the type of qc oats I used? I was really excited about the prospect of a 1pt. cookie :(

dissapointed....it hurt my artritic hands to mash...so i put it all in the blender...which would not blend it...then I added eggwhites for liquid....that helped...but made a batter...so I put it all in a brownie pan and oh yes I added nutmeg...couldnt find the cinnamon...will let you know how it turned out...loli am looking for low cholesterol cookies!

maybe when you sub in apple sauce maybe try some small chopped apple chunks too and a dash of cinnamoni will be trying this when i get home from holidays dont have any way of baking here :-( otherwise i would be making them today hehe

Have my batch in the oven right now, I used 2 1/2 bananas (I already used 1/2 of one for my smoothie) about 1/8 cup mini chocolate chips, 1 1/4 cup old fashioned oats, 1/4 tsp vanilla and a few dashes of cinnamon, I hope they turn out as awesome as the smell already! It looks like it's going to yield about 25 cookies, I'm going to try to store them in a ziploc freezer bag with a slice of bread to keep them chewy and moist :)

I gave up wheat for Lent, so I have been fiending for a cookie! I only had one ripe banana, so I subbed equal amount of pumpkin, and added pecans, chocolate chips, and a bit of pumpkin pie spice. I had to cook them an extra 5 minutes and they are still a bit mushy and round, but the kid and hubby liked them! I think I also needed to chop the pecans and chocolate, that may have helped. A bit too banana-y for me, but I still ate two and enjoyed it! Great recipe, thanks

I made these but didn't have walnuts so I made them with mini chocolate chips. They were good but almost too dry maybe my bananas weren't ripe enough or I didn't use big enough ones?? I will make these again.